The exemplary embodiment relates to the field of information retrieval. It finds particular application in connection with an automated system and method for assessing the factuality of retrieved information.
Search engines are widely used to mine information from websites, databases, and the like. Such systems are able to identify named entities (NEs) in text, such as the names of people or organizations. They can provide the user with a list of documents or document excerpts that contain occurrences of the queried Named Entity. However, if the user is interested in reading statements by an individual or statements on some topic, the user may have to read each of the retrieved documents in order to find out whether the documents contain any of the desired statements.
Systems have also been developed for what is known as opinion mining, using affect analysis. These systems aim at classifying texts according to opinions or feelings expressed in the texts about some entity or concept. However, they do not associate statements or quotations with their authors.